Some of the excitement, and much of the usual fanfare, were missing from the 2008 LinuxWorld event in San Francisco. Show-goers wondered whether they had ever seen a LinuxWorld with so little splash and flare. And yet, splash isn't everything. In the press rooms and business meetings, the industry seemed poised to launch a new era of appliances, netbooks, and virtual everything.

Evolution and Kontact are the standard Personal Information Management applications on Linux, but many users are dissatisfied with the major players. Pimlico is a small-footprint alternative, and GDATA Provider brings Google with Mozilla calendar.